Ever feel like your brain just works differently – like how you need more space, more quiet, or more time to think? In this solo episode of The Ambitious Introvert®, I’m diving into some fascinating (and science-backed) reasons why that’s not just in your head – it’s actually how your brain is wired.
We’ll explore three key ways introverts process, respond, and recharge that set us apart – not in a “fix yourself” kind of way, but in a “ohhhh, that’s why I do that!” kind of way. If you’ve ever second-guessed the way you work or wondered why other people seem to thrive on things that drain you, this one’s for you.
Here’s what we cover:
- Why dopamine floods can feel overwhelming, and which neurotransmitter is the introvert’s secret weapon for calm focus.
- The surprising way introverts use more brain energy, and what it means for your fatigue levels and social battery.
- What really happens when you pause before speaking, and why your slower processing is actually a strength.
- How your brain’s default mode influences decision-making, reflection, and creativity by taking the long road
Whether you’re an introvert wanting to better understand your own patterns or someone who leads or lives with one, this episode will help you reframe how you think about energy, focus, and expression.
MENTIONED STUDIES:
◾️Laney, M. O. (2002). The Introvert Advantage – explains dopamine sensitivity and acetylcholine rewards
◾️Johnson, D. L., & Wiebe, J. S. et al. (1999). Cerebral Blood Flow and Personality: A PET Study. Am J Psychiatry, 156(2), 252–257. (PMID 9989562)
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Website: https://theambitiousintrovert.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmalouparkes/
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In today’s episode, I’m walking you through three science backed ways that the introverted brain is literally wired differently from the extroverted one. We’re going to cover why dopamine hits feel like way too much for us introverts, why your mind is always busy even when you’re quiet, and why you process things more deeply than most people would ever realise.
This is not personality test fluff, this is backed by neuroscience. And once you understand this about yourself, you can stop trying to override your wiring and stop building around it. Start working with your introverted brain and then rather than just trying to survive in this noisy world, you’ll be able to outperform it.
As you’re listening to this podcast, I suspect you, are a very self aware, ambitious introvert. So you probably know that you think more deeply than other people, feel overstimulated in loud environments and you see that you need more time to respond sometimes than other people do.
Did you ever think about why none of these traits are in your head? Well, they are, but in the most literal sense because our brain is wired differently and that is why we are the way we are.
So today I’m going toa walk you through three of the ways that the introverted brain is fundamentally different from extroverts. And each one is backed by neuroscience. So hopefully when you start to understand how your brain is wired, you can stop trying to fix yourself and try to act in a different way, but really start building around your strengths.
And that is where we’re able to tap into our introverted genius without absolutely depleting ourselves because we’re not going against the way we’re built.
Okay, let’s dive in.
Number one, the first difference between introverted and extroverted brains is neurotransmitter sensitivity and in particular afferendopamine, which I’ve spoken about in many episodes recently, versus acetylcholine.
Now the scientific source for this is Dr. Marty Oln Lainey, and this was carried out back in 2002. And Laineney’s research showed that introverts have increased sensitivity to dopamine and stronger acetylcholine activity, which explains the preference for low stimulation environments. Dopamine literally overstimulates us, while acetylcholine helps us to focus and feel satisfied.
Okay, so let’s dive in a little deeper.
We’re all familiar with dopamine. Dopamine hits come from the quick wins, the slot machine kind of lighting up and playing a tune. Social media, you know, oh, how many likes have I got that? All of these things in modern life are created to give us dopamine hits. And when we’re used to that and it’s taken away, we can feel pretty miserable and empty.
Which is why a lot of these things are borderline addictive. Because we are rewarding the brain. The brain, go get it. Chemical goes off, it’s novelty, it’s external stimulation, it’s all of these things.
This also explains why although you may be drawn to some of those activities, after a while you feel absolutely depleted. Because introverts are more sensitive to dopamine, which means that what energises an extrovert can and probably will quickly overwhelm and drain us as introverts.
Instead we are more receptive and thrive on acetylcholine. And acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter, that supports focus, calm, pleasure and a sense of deep wellbe being. So like can deep fulfilment. And of course as introverts we love to go deep on all of these things.
So this explains why introverts enjoy solo activities so much. Like reading, learning, why we enjoy that deep one on one conversation rather than a big group of surface level chat. Those activities light up the brain’s acetylcholine pathways which gives us that ah, calm, focus, deep sense of well being versus the dopamine which gives us the quick hit and unfortunately quickly burns us out.
So where dopamine’s great for thrill seeking extroverts, acetylcholine actually rewards the inward facing introverts.
And this is not a character flaw. Just because you are not responding in the same way to most people you see around you to things like social media or loud environments. There’s nothing wrong, it’s just that your brain chemistry is literally different.
Okay, on to number two, frontal lobe blood flow and energy use. And this is from Deborah L. Johnson and John Bebe from the University of Iowa. And this is 1997 studies. This has been around for a long time.
The study found that introverts have increased cerebral blood flow to the frontal lobes while extroverts show more activity in the anterior singular gyrus. I hope I pronounced that correctly. And temporal lobes, which is linked to sensory and emotional processing.
So introverts have a greater blood flow to the frontal lobes which is the brain centre for decision making, internal dialogue and long term planning.
So look at this. Anything that we are wired to do has a positive and a negative, right? If we go too far either way, we’re not getting the most of it. So think about that. Decision making, internal dialogue, long term planning, they are literally your strengths. You’re getting more blood to those areas of your brain than extroverts.
And then think about the things that also hold you back. Overthinking, decision making, too much internal dialogue, or getting into deep stories and really telling ourselves things that are, maybe not true. And long term planning can become lots of planning and not very much action sometimes.
So I think this is so fascinating that those areas are literally more activ. But once we know this and it’s been highlighted, we can choose the activity that we focus on. So decision making rather than overthinking.
So to break it down, introverts use more oxygen and glucose in the frontal cortex and this has been shown in PET scanss. That’s a positron emission tomography scan. This part of the brain is associated, like I said before, with problem solving, but also abstract thought and reflecting before we act.
It is like a little supercomputer in your brain running quietly in the background and it’s really powerful, but if we overload it, it’s gonna spike and it’s gonna overheat and not cope with the demand, just like a normal computer. And there’s a big energy cost to that because spending more time in the frontal lobe means that we can fatigue a lot more quickly in overstimulating environments.
So as well as maybe getting stuck in that internal state, which can be wonderful, right, if we’re going inwards to maybe do a mental rehearsal of something that we want to create in our future, or we’re going inwards to feel gratitude or celebrate something that is wonderful, but it’s making sure that we’re not spending too much time inwards on things that are burning through our brain’s energy litre.
And understanding that this is a superpower that we have if we can harness it correctly, especially things like problem solving, abstract thought, thinking before acting, those things in the future of work in an automated AI driven world are absolute goals.
So once again our introverted strengths are coming to the forefront and it’s really, really important that we see them as that. The fact that this part of our brain is like a supercomputer and it’s processing constantly is also a good reminder that our brains are processors, they’re not storage devices.
And something that I talk a lot with my private clients about is making sure that you’re not trying to hold everything in your brain. So whether that is journaling to process your thoughts, whether that is having a really robust system of capturing ideas and thoughts and to dos and emptying them out of your brain on a daily basis.
That is super important because if we’re trying to process and store a load of data at the same time, it’s no wonder we get exhausted and overwhelmed. So essentially your frontal lobes are doing the heavy lifting.
Others are already reacting, the extroverts, they’ve gone past this part and they’re already reacting. But you are running strategic simulations inside your head which can be incredibly powerful and also incredibly draining.
And number three, introverts have longer neural processing pathways than extroverts.
This is another study from Laineney from 2002 and this cites multiple PET scan findings and foundational research of the neuroscience of arousal personality from back in 1967 from IYC.
So introverts brain pathways for stimulus travel a longer route and engage more of the parasympathetic nervous system. So this means that introverted brains are built to pause, reflect and analyse rather than jump straight in.
So we have this longer, more complex brain circuitry that loops through memory, planning internal dialogue. So it takes a little longer to get there. That’s why we don’t just jump in and react. We’re rooting new information through multiple regions of our brain.
It’s literally going on a longer journey than your extroverted colleagues sat next to you. It goes through the hippocampus for memory, the anterior thalamus for awareness and then the frontal cortex that we talked about in the previous points.
So this longer route means that we can make more meaning of things, we can recognise patterns and we are maybe more cautious in our responses, which is why we often pause before we speak or why we feel mentally full a little bit faster and a bit overstimulated.
So by contrast, extroverts are processing data through the shorter posterior thalamic pathway which leads to a quicker, more stimulus driven response.
So again, this is wonderful. How great to know that you received the same information as someone but you are taking it around more regions of your brain and literally giving it a much deeper dive before you do anything with it.
The downside is that we can ruminate and we can overthink and over process but essentially we have better judgement, deeper insight and our ah, action is likely to be more intentional because we have run it through all of those different brain regions.
So when you are getting annoyed with yourself because you think you’re overthinking and you’re taking too long, remember that you’re not. You are processing. Your brain is literally designed for depth and not speed. And that is okay.
This is where as a team, it’s wonderful to have a mix of personalities because the extroverts are built for speed and instant response stimulus. Your brain is there for depth to start seeing the deeper meaning, to recognise the patterns, or to temper maybe a quick response with one that’s a little more cautious. And both of those things are needed.
When we try to act like extroverts, we lose that. We lose such a deep and unique skill set that is needed by everyone.
So I just wanted to record this short episode to give you some of the science behind what we say. Because we probably all know that we get trained, we all know that we, overthink. We know that we can go into a process in loop.
But when we understand why, I would love that it can help us all to stop judging ourselves, to stop making ourselves wrong for it, to stop looking for an answer for it, and to actually own it. And to own all the amazing gifts and qualities that it brings to our careers, to our businesses, to, our relationships.
You are wired for strategy rather than speed, and you are wired for meaning rather than surface level noise. But when you stop judging yourself by extroverted standards and really lean into that, that’s when you can start performing at your true potential without burning through your energy at the same time.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Let me know if you enjoyed this episode. Would you like to learn more about the science, of introversion? I have done so much research on the topic over the last five years that I have so much I could share.
But let me know, is this interesting to you? Does this help you to understand why you act the way you act? And did it help you give yourself commission to be introverted and ambitious at the same time?
You can email me anytime. Hello, theambitiousint introvert.com or reach out on Instagram or LinkedIn. Emmaloup Parks. And until then, I will see you in the next episode.
Thank you for tuning in into this week’s episode. I hope that you’re feeling expanded to what’s possible for you, motivated to take action and inspired about how you can start to, own your energy.
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